A straight guy who has participated in gay sex seems more likely to have a problem with people knowing about it than a gay man would.
I’m baffled as to what they’re playing at, but a Scientologist tried to set up an interview with Paul Haggis, posing as a reporter from Time Magazine! Time, of all places. Time, that in 1991 published the brave cover story “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power” which launched such a shitstorm of litigation, surveillance, harassment and all-around dirty tricks from the cult that it had a chilling effect on most anyone else writing about the cult for a long, long, long time.
Haggis and Mike Rinder give their takes on the trickery at the link. There are theories as to why, but they’re only vague theories. Since everyone else has a theory, my theory is that Scientologists wanted to get Haggis into a room where they could bullbait Haggis into divulging names of people still in the cult who have contacted him with doubts or for help getting out of the cult.
For techy people out there, how could Haggis’s staff trace the email back to the Scientology building, and find out when the yahoo.com mail address was created?
Not related, but some, especially those new to the cult, might find this interesting. When I was looking for a quick and dirty page about bullbaiting, I came across this page about Scientolgy’s inner language (all those acronyms, weird words and misuse of words!) from Margery Wakefield’s fine book Understanding Scientology.
Oh gosh, right in the preface of Margery’s book is an example of how they kidnapped her and bullbaited her for 3 days to try and get her to drop a lawsuit! This kind of thing is what I had in mind for (that Scientology would do to) Haggis.
So does Cruise have a rider in his contracts that prohibits interviewers from asking him about Scientology? Because I have to wonder why somebody doesn’t just ask him straight up if he believes in Xenu.
I’m sure he does. His interviews have always been tightly controlled. This article from 1993 in the Los Angeles magazine from film critic/journalist turned director Rod Lurie (The Contender) shows just how hard-ass his people were back then.
To those in the UK interested in Going Clear, blame Northern Ireland.
This interested me:
I’ve heard several people say on Twitter that Murdoch hates Scientology. I hate the bastard, but we all know he’s richer than fuck, so I wish he’d just say, bring it on, and air it anyway.
Scientology doesn’t even have an Org in Northern Ireland. They list one, but it’s closed. (Meanwhile, in Ireland, things are really bad)
Who is going to stream it, Netflix? Can Brits get that?
John Travolta says he’s saved lives with Scientology. Snerk.
Gosh, too bad he couldn’t save his own son after taking him off seizure medication on the advice of “beautiful” Scientology. Travolta has a special reason for staying deeeep in denial and it has nothing to do with being gay. I used to like him a lot and had hoped he’d wake up, but now I want more than anything for him to wake up, screaming. Harsh, but damn he deserves it.
I never much liked Travolta, he seems like Tony Danza absent the personality. And Scientology has not done much to improve his intelligence, as far as I can tell.
There’s some concrete news about Tony Ortega’s book about Paulette Cooper, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.
It’s wonderful that Paulette is still around to see the fight. She’s a real pioneer in getting the truth out about this abusive cult. She paid dearly and suffered terribly for daring to tell the truth long before anyone else, but she survived and thrived and, as they say, living well is the best revenge. Here’s a great interview from 2013 in St. Louis at a cheeky gathering of SPs, something that would have been unimaginable in her day. It’s great to see her looking so well and happy after being tormented for so long.
Also on the blog today, a 1997 video interview with Hana Whitfield, who was also in Going Clear. Hana was on the Apollo ship with LRH and it’s because of her we know stories such as people being thrown overboard as punishment, sometimes blindfolded and with their hands and feet tied (they were fished out, sometimes to be thrown back in again, sometimes multiple times). She also tells of people being put in the chain locker (that hot, dark, wet, muddy place where the anchor is kept stored) including a scared 4-year old boy who was forced to stay in there for 2 days. Fucking psychopath Hubbard.
I’ve been following these two blogs that have been linked to in this thread, and this one from The Underground Bunker was just great. Hard to explain why, but it’s over an hour of this one guy who did tech support for the cult talking about the troubles they had dealing with the rise of new technologies in general, and the information-about-Scientology-rich rise of the Internet in particular. And mixed in is a lot of genial chit-chat about the ex-Scientologist community. I loved it.
Yeah, Marc Headley! I listened to that podcast the other day. I need to listen again because I literally just finished reading his book Blown For Good (and I do mean literally because I finished it not 5 minutes before I came in and sat down at the computer!) and it’s a fascinating story. His harrowing tale of escaping from Gold Base in Hemet, CA opens the book, then he goes back to the beginning and writes about the 15 years he spent in the cult, and he has a LOT to tell. When he finally escaped he had to leave without his wife Claire (Scientology had forced her to have 2 abortions while she was a Sea Org member), but she made her own harrowing escape a few weeks later, almost being caught and forcibly returned to Gold. Since then they’ve made a new life for themselves though they are estranged from family members still in the cult thanks to Scientology’s odious and toxic “Disconnection” policy.
Marc and Claire together are listed as #16 on Tony Ortega’s 2011 (pre-Lawrence Wright/Alex Gibney) list of The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, partially for speaking out, and partially for having the balls to sue Scientology for the slave labor conditions of the Sea Org (they lost, unfortunately). Here’s Tony Ortega’s review of the book.
I thought I’d mention that that there will be a screening on May 21 in Summit, NJ to benefit local arts entities so if you live or know someone who lives in the area, please pass this along. Alex Gibney will be there for a Q & A.
Going Clear will be playing the Toronto Film Festival in a few months. I don’t know how common it is for a movie that’s played Sundance, then shown on HBO, to then play at the TIFF, but I believe it’s another indication that HBO is taking its Oscar chances seriously.
No new news about the film playing in Canada (or anywhere else) yet.
No new news on Louis Theroux’s BBC documentary since the cult’s recent intimidation tactics utterly backfired and got the doc a ton of new publicity. It is supposed to be a theatrical release but whether it would play anywhere other than art houses in the bigger cities is unknown.
One other thing, Tony Ortega’s book about Paulette Cooper, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, is available for pre-order at amazon. It will be released May 14.
For an overview of this amazing and horrific story, read the Wikipedia page on Operation Freakout. It’s a hell of a story and finally gets its due. It’s being released by a small, very brave publisher who refused to be intimidated by the cult. The writer has been harassed (“dead agented” and “fair gamed”) for 20+ years and has never wavered in his quest to write about the truth of Scientology. Neither dealt with a fraction of what the cult put Paulette Cooper through.
Please support this book. I’ve pre-ordered the Kindle for iPhone version but I also plan to buy the physical book. I’m so excited! I became a critic in the '70’s and Paulette’s was the first critical book I read. I hope I hope I hope it gets made into a quality movie with big, well-respected names attached, so her story gets the attention a small book release can’t give.
Canadians! I just read this article/interview with Gibney that said starting tomorrow it will be playing in “select theaters” and also on “VOD and iTunes.” Looks like you’ll have to go searching for those theaters and VOD places. Please post what you find and spread the word
Sounds like the experience of HBO has re-assured whatever powers that be in Canada that they can show it without fear of lawsuits. As they say, the truth may not protect you, but it’s a good defense.
Yep. I’m glad it’s getting some exposure.
I just found some Canadian reviews and in this one, it states
I see from a recent post that Neil Gaiman was raised in Scientology, though he left. It significantly changes the image I had of him, though that’s probably unfair of me. Still, though, I’m starting to think that the Wikipedia and IMDB pages for all celebrities should have a summary of their affiliations with Scientology just so I don’t get blind-sighted like that.
“Blind-sided.”